by Daniel Snowden
Yesterday the Daisy Cutter published an article examining the “curse” of Cesc Fabregras, but I think this is totally unfair (find it here: http://www.thedaisycutter.co.
First up, cards on the table: I am an Arsenal fan and season ticket holder and whilst I was sad to see Cesc go and angry at the way the club dealt with his departure, I have nothing but admiration and respect for a player that gave us so many good memories at the Emirates, including that goal direct from kick off against the scum.
Ah, happy days.
The first point I would like to address is that Arsenal replaced a winning mentality with a losing one as Cesc came into the side. B****cks. There is no such thing. Players do not go out on the field to deliberately lose, unless they are in Italy. I concede that as The Invincibles were phased out the newer players might not know quite how to win (something that never seems to happen at Utd) but cup finals in
2006, 2007 and 2011 plus numerous semi final appearances and a strong league record do not mean you are a loser.
Under Wenger there has never been a “losing is ok” mindset. The reason the club missed out on trophies in that period was that the money simply did not exist to go out and buy world class players, let alone pay them. In addition first Chelsea, and then City at home and then the Spanish Giants abroad hovered up all the best talent around,
paying well over the odds in some cases. Despite the financial disadvantage, Arsenal managed to keep up, to hang onto the coat tails while at the same time playing some amazing football.
Furthermore Arsenal has not “lost its bottle”. You don’t spend hundreds of millions of pounds on a new stadium if you have lost your bottle. In fact the opposite is true; you must have supreme confidence in the team, club and supports to go ahead with a project like that.
And the assertion that spending time at a club that has come close and won nothing would affect his belief that he can win – yeah, I am sure that Cesc sees his Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010 medals as not winning anything. Plus I think you will find that his contribution to winning, be it from the sub’s bench, was in fact pivotal – he set up the winning goal in 2010.
Finally, “His first season at Barcelona is going to end trophyless”. Err, no its not. So far since Cesc has joined, Barca has won The FIFA Club World Cup, The European Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. They will finish second in the league to a team that has spent a gazillion euros on new players in the last few years, and they were a Messi penalty and the width of a post from putting Chelsea out of the Champions League.
So, I don’t think there is a curse on Cesc at all. He is a world class player, who made his name at a club going through transition and has now joined another team that is going through some major changes. As the current Barca players get older and retire/move on, he will be come the heartbeat of that side and I have no doubt he will lift the Champions League with them inside a few seasons, probably as captain.
Before he returns home to do the same with Arsenal.
“His first season at Barcelona is going to end trophyless”.- I addressed that yesterday, an oversight on my part. I’ll tell you this it’s the players that win big trophies – champions league, league titles that are remembered not some dainty cup.
“Players do not go out on the field to deliberately lose, unless they are in Italy.” – Nice line. I think you are misinterpreting what I mean. What I was getting at is that they don’t have the experience or mentality to see out big games or games where they are under the cosh of which there are many many examples.
“The reason the club missed out on trophies in that period was that the money simply did not exist to go out and buy world class players, let alone pay them.” – So be it, why then didn’t Wenger keep onto his older star and experienced players like Viera or Bilberto like Ferguson has done with Scholes and Giggs? Poor management.